HACK Issue 005: MCRA, A Cloud Guru's top 10 searches, and Minimum Viable Tests

Greetings from Boise! Welcome the first week of the year, where we all have to cross out or re-type 2021 to 2022 at least 3 times per day.

This past weekend I got to get away into the mountains of Sun Valley, Idaho. It was a winter wonderland with 2+ feet of snow. My wife and I got to leave the kids at home with the grandparents and enjoy some time together reading, praying, and planning for 2022. Such a refreshing time!

Onward...

Security tweets and links

The Microsoft Security Reference Architecture is a fantastic resource and I'm shocked I've never heard or seen this before. Great tool with visualizing how things are connected. Definitely respect the work put into this as a marketer. Hats off to you, Mark Simos, you're doing God's work.

Digital Forensics course by @4n6lady launches next Monday.

A Cloud Guru shared the top 10 searches on their platform in 2021. Azure at #10, and I was honestly kind of surprised at what was #1.  

Marketing thought of the week

This week's marketing note, is a community note. Amalia Fowler tweeted asking for folks to respond with their marketing tech stack, some great lists there so I added in some of my experience on the community building tools side:

I also just joined the cybersecurity marketing society, and in a matter of minutes I connected with someone who helped me with a referral and it turns out I know some of his co-workers well from my HackerOne days. If you're reading this, hi Mark! Anyhow, it was pretty cool to see the power of community in action. Looking forward to engaging more there.  

Inspirational Note of the week: Designing for the average is designing for no-one

Gigan Bayani is a successful entrepreneur. He preaches something called "minimum viable test", a precursor to the Silicon Valley dogma of "minimum viable product" popularized through the lean startup work by Steve Blank, Eric Ries and others. He recently published a very long and informative article on The First Round Review The Minimum Viable Testing Process for Evaluating Startup Ideas.

I enjoyed the read and it got me thinking about how if you're thinking in averages, you'll fail. After all, one degree is the difference between ice and water. If your ideal customer profile wants water but your solution is just one degree off and it's ice to them, you fail.

Here's an excerpt from my 2016 blog post "Why Designing for the Average is Designing for No-One"

Russell Allen Phillips, or Phil as his friends called him, was a B-24 pilot in the U.S. Army during World War 2. The distinguishing characteristic about Phil was his height. Some of the men called him "Sandblaster" because, said one pilot, "his fanny was so close to the ground." You see, B-24s were built for pilots that matched an average height or even a little on the taller side. Phil needed a cushion to get his feet to the pedals and his eyes over the control panel. Phil was not alone with his rogue modifications to the cockpit. And it was likely these adjustments that kept him and his crew alive for so long...  continue reading

I hope you enjoyed today's newsletter and have yourself a fantastic weekend ahead! <3